"That will be fine," Minerva accepted. "Though the only kind of wire I am familiar with is garrote, I can still take a look at the machines if you instruct me to do so. I can start whenever you'd like." Working for a gym leader would be the perfect cover that would lessen suspicion from the authorities, but the attention she was getting recently might make her a topic among the trainers - especially those that would be coming in an out to challenge the gym. Her best bet would be to have a backup plan should she pick up any unwanted heat.

"I suppose now I should be looking for a place to stay," she added. "Do you happen to know any affordable housing that... isn't around the Mauville Apartments?" In truth she did not want to return to that area since people began to spread stories of her "heroics", but the damage may have already been done. Some random biker punk just had to pick the wrong fight, and such an encounter would have never happened if she had never allowed Nick to guide her through the place.

She slept with her Pokemon resting at the foot of her bed so that when she woke she could see them. But when Selena woke she saw only three out of four of her Pokemon waiting for her. The fourth, her Electrike, was missing from the group. She had thought to leave that one in its Pokeball due to its earlier misbehavior. Against her better judgement, she did not want the Pokemon to feel excluded from the group and hoped she could teach it to listen to her.

"Come on you three, let's go find the missing one." Selena said with a sigh as she got up. She quickly dressed herself after washing her hair - otherwise it would get too greasy - and took to looking around the Pokemon Center for traces of her missing Pokemon. She found tracks - mud - leading to the outside, though how it managed to track mud from inside to the outside was beyond Selena.

The quad outside the Center was very quiet and very empty. There was only one person left in the square and he was bent at the knee with the missing Electrike. When the dark-skinned boy saw Selena approaching he stood up and addressed her.

"This your Electrike?" he asked. Selena didn't respond and the Electrike growled up at her. "Seems like he doesn't like you very much. You beat him or something?"

"It's none of your business." Selena said. Her other Pokemon grouped around her legs, with the Vulpix hiding behind her. "Electrike, return." She ordered, but the Electrike wouldn't budge. More disobedience. She was hoping it would not be such a difficult Pokemon to train, but it seemed that Selena was destined to have to deal with this.

"I plan to make it my business, now." The boy retrieves a Pokeball of his own and releases his pokemon. The Tyrogue punched the air as it exited and gave a slight war cry, ready to fight. "Fight me with that Mawile of yours. The winner gets to decide your fate." Wait, what? What moron decided to come up with that line? Clearly this guy was taking a cue from some movie or TV show or something, but that he would repeat it only speaks volumes to his own idiocy.

"Fine," Selena snapped. She'll play along with this game, but had no intentions of losing. Even if it was her first Pokemon battle. Watching Wattson and Gabe invigorated her, gave her ideas. She wanted to try them out, but she knew Mawile would have to be 100% on board with her. "Mawile, I need you. Will you fight for me?" Selena asked. The little one put up its fist and gave her a confident smile.

"My name's Tyrone. You'll see in a minute why I won't lose."

"I'm Selena. You won't be seeing much after I kick your face into the dirt."

The following morning, Gabriel had awoken to use the restroom facilities before making another round of raiding the lobby for the free breakfast. Duke sat with Gabriel as they both shared a plate of blueberry pancakes, casually eyeing the other trainers as they made idle conversation. Gabriel was eager to jump straight back into a rematch with Wattson, but knew he had to change up his entire strategy. Repeating the same actions and expecting a different result would not bode well, and even Gabriel knew that. Just how was he supposed to "train" his Pokemon?

Before recruiting Sigma to his roster of Pokemon, Duke had not participated in many battles and thus never evolved since Gabriel left the university. Gabriel also never liked having Regulus out in the open too much, for it often caused an onset of annoying trade requests from collectors and other trainers. Regulus was a rare breed of Honedge, possessing a blood-colored blade as opposed to the standard gray edge that most others had. Relegating his Pokemon to reclusiveness repudiated any time for Gabriel form a stronger bond. After finishing his plate and a cup of orange juice, Gabriel exited the Pokemon Center with Duke at his side. His first sight upon leaving the building was Selena starting a battle with another trainer.

"Whoa..." Gabriel uttered, impressed by what he saw. "That's a black guy."

"Tyrogue, Bulk Up!" Tyrone ordered. The fighter Pokemon pumped its fists and its body began to glow red with heat, focusing energy. Selena understood, and she wasn't about to let it have a free move.

"Mawile, Flamethrower!" Mawile arched back slightly and flames formed at its mouth.

"What Mawile knows how to use Flamethrower?!" Tyrone was shocked by the move, too shocked to give his Pokemon an order to dodge. But as the flames came upon the Tyrogue, there wouldn't have been any dodging anyway. It was too focused on building power and its reactions were not enough. The flames soon dissipated and left the Tyrogue on one knee, wincing from the newly acquired burns.

"Charge it!" Selena barked, Mawile already running forward. She collided with the Tyrogue - no special move required, but the hit sent the Tyrogue skidding back on the ground. Mawile had power to spare.

"Mach Punch!" The Tyrogue's fist glowed white and the little Pokemon took off at lightning quick speeds. Its fist connected with Mawile before she or Selena could react, but Mawile stood firm against it.

"Iron Head!" Mawile spun its massive horn around and it solidified, turning gray as it hardened and rounded it out towards the Tyrogue.

Tyrone was on to of it this time and already had a move ready. "Tyrogue, Counter it!" Tyrogue's entire body glowed red again and it caught the heavy-hitting Iron Head. It winced from the power behind it, though, and took an extra second to follow through, giving Selena enough time to make her counter-counterattack.

"Foul Play!" Selena ordered and just as the fist was coming around, Mawile jumped to avoid it and then clamped down on it with her horns. She landed on the other side of Tyrogue and threw it down onto the ground in front of her, denting the dirt and causing dust to come up off the ground. As the dust cleared, it revealed the fallen Tyrogue who has still not gotten up after Mawile's last attack. The little one pumped its fist into the air and cheered in victory. Selena knelt down beside her and pet her head with a smile. "Good work, little one."

"Return," Tyrone said, putting the Tyrogue back into its Pokeball without saying even a single word of thanks. Needless to say he was disappointed. "Enjoy your victory while you can. You won't get me by surprise next time." Tyrone spit on the ground and turned tail. The Electrike tried to escape with the boy, but Selena was quick enough to return it to its Pokeball.

She wasn't even sure if it was worth dealing with Electrike anymore. She saw Gabe watching and sat down in the grass next to her three Pokemon. "That was my first real battle," Selena told him. She couldn't help but smile. "It was exciting."

"Oldale Town!" Sahara sighed in relief as they pulled into the small town. "I thought I'd never see it!" Nick smiled at her as she spun around on the spot in her joy. He had tagged along so far, but did he want to go the whole distance with her or part ways? It was only half a day to get to Littleroot by bike, after all. They could be down and back by the end of the day, though they'd be cutting it a bit close. He'd be alright with that. "Hey, isn't that Professor Birch over there?" And Sahara was gone.

"Woah, hold up, Sarah!" Nick slipped on her name a bit in his surprise. He rushed to follow her, Professor Birch was just walking out of the local market. Apparently Littleroot was much smaller and didn't have access to a big shopping center like Oldale now, though that wasn't true a few years ago.

"If it isn't Sahara!" Professor Birch was overjoyed to see the girl. "And Nick, it's certainly been a while since I've seen you."

"Likewise, Professor," Nick said.

"So, Sahara, have you come to show me your Pokemon? Oh, I see you have a new friend already!"

"I met Sam on the way here," Sahara told him. "And Frodo is a bit nervous about you wanting to look at him, but I thought we were going to go to your lab to do that."

"We were. Why don't the two of you hop into my car, then? You can help my wife put away the groceries as thanks."

"Sure, I'll have no problem with that, but Nick said he wanted to move along the road. Right Nick?" Sahara looked back at the boy, who hesitated and found himself becoming flustered. Her smile was too bright.

"If Professor Birch is willing to drive us, I'll come along." Nick said. "Besides, I've come to like you- I mean, traveling with you." Whew, close one. Sahara didn't seem at all phased by his slip up. First her name and now this, Nick really had to get a hold of himself.

So the trio hopped onto Birch's car and they drove all the way to Littleroot. There was little to see outside, other than the occasional Pokemon fleeing the noisy car. Most Pokemon cleared out before the car reached them - it was such an odd occurrence for cars to come down country roads the Pokemon were far more frightened of them than in Kalos. Sahara mentioned once before the Pokemon would come right up to the noisy cars without problems in Lumiose.

They arrived in Littleroot Town in record time and Sahara and Nick set about helping Birch's wife with the groceries (she immediately booted them out once they were all taken indoors) while Professor Birch borrowed Frodo - frog willing - and went off to his lab. With nothing left to do but wait, Sahara and Nick went into the clearing.

"How's about you and I have a battle, Nick?" Sahara finally asked after too much silence passed by.

Nick shrugged. "Why not?" He fingered a Pokeball and brought out his Lombre. "I think Lombre will be the best fit for your Shellos to take on."

"Okay." Sahara let the little sea snail off her shoulders. It left a gooey trail wherever it went, Nick was surprised a girl wasn't grossed out by it. But then again, Sahara didn't seem like a normal girl in any stretch of the word. "I won't go easy on you though!" Sahara was giggling again. That bubbly, contagious little laugh that made his heart skip beats. He knew his affliction and was glad to have stuck around.

"Lombre, let's keep our gear dry today." Nick said, already forbidding use of two of Lombre's moves. The Shellos would get a power-up from rain too, perhaps an even greater one than Lombre would get. He nearly forgot about Storm Drain. Bubblebeam would be useless too. But Shellos didn't have very many ways of reaching Lombre. "I'll let you start, Sarah." He slipped up again.

"Sarah?" Sahara paused for a moment. "I kinda like that, actually. I'll let it slide. Sam, lets see a Rain Dance!" Nick felt like slapping his forehead. Of course the water slug knew Rain Dance. There was no reason for it not to know it. Soon enough the skies above them turned gray and rain began to fall steadily. So much for staying dry, but at least Lombre would get a speed-up. "Now Mud Bomb!" The Shellos reared its head and summoned a clump of mud in the air, explosive pellets firing from it towards the Lombre, who immediately shifted out of the way. "Oh shit, he's fast!"

"Lombre has Swift Swim, he'll get super fast in the rain or in water." Nick explained quickly. "Lombre, get in close and use Ice Beam!" The Pokemon didn't say a thing, only obeyed the order, rushing at Shellos with its greater speed until it wound up behind the slug, which had not moved the whole time.

"Use Brine!" Sahara called out. The Shellos flattened its head against its body, forcing spikes of water to rise up from the ground just as Lombre was preparing the ice. The water turned to ice just as it hit the Lombre, sending it skidding backwards in pain and panic. "Hey, that's really pretty!" Sahara laughed, watching as the ice spikes broke down to dust around Shellos.

"Don't get too distracted! Lombre, use Nature Power!" Nature Power here would turn into Needle Arm, Nick thought, but to his dismay he saw the yellow stars come flying out of Lombre's mouth instead. The attack still landed, but he would have to deal with not having a super-effective move here. There was too much stone in the pathways for the grass to take effect.

"Hang in there, Sam! Mud Bomb again!" Lombre quickly dodged out of the way of the flying mud, but got hit by a rogue one. It fell to the ground and stayed here, not knocked out, but clearly unwilling to battle. "Um..." Sahara hesitated.

"Well," Nick sighed, scratching his neck. He held up Lombre's Pokeball and returned it. "Lombre has an...issue. He gets bored very easily. Don't take any offense, it isn't that the battle wasn't fun...well, actually I guess that is what it was."

"It's alright," Sahara let Sam back up her arm and giggled as it slowly crawled up her shoulder. She nuzzled her nose into its nose, which elicited a happy response from the Pokemon. "We'll just chalk it up as a victory for me. Which means you're cooking tonight. Can I make a suggestion? That curry you made was amazing."

Nick laughed, "Alright, once we get back to Oldale I'll make you some. But we should go check on Professor Birch, I think."

"Yeah, your Mawile's really tough," Gabriel observed, with Duke chirping in agreement. "You could probably hold your own with Wattson with the way you handled yourself under the pressure. It gets pretty intense when you know there's a badge on the line. Watching battles is one thing, but stepping up in the arena is a while different world." He reached into his jacket pocket for his bag of jerky, grabbing a chunk to chew on. As knowledgeable as he was on the experience of feeling for battle, Gabe still lacked the experience of training his Pokemon.

He stared over in the direction where Selena's opponent had been during the battle, unaware of the implications of the conditions. "So... what was with that guy?"

"I'm not so sure about that one," Selena said, glancing down at Mawile. "I still need to take this one to see a Contest. Fallabor Town seems the place to be for that. Maybe I'll take the trip around the mountain to Fallabor, go through Meteor Falls, and challenge Rustboro's Gym Leader. I hear she's good for beginning trainers."

As for the black boy, Tyrone, Selena wasn't too sure herself what his issue was. When the subject of him came up she heard Chikorita start growling. "Chikorita, that's enough of that," Selena said shortly, stopping the grass-type from making that noise. "I'm not sure. He saw my Electrike being disobedient and challenged me. He said something like the winner gets to decide my fate, as if we were in some Lumiose movie studio or something."

"More importantly, have you trained for your battle with Wattson yet? If not, I've heard the Champion was supposed to be battling one of the Elite Four today. Watching that might give you some ideas."

"I heard about the battle on the Holo Caster, but I didn't know it was going to be close by," Gabriel mentioned, suddenly perking up a bit. Watching how the professionals battled would undoubtedly provide Gabriel with useful tips on how to improve his battling skills, and not only that, he would get a grasp on their battling technique should he ever face them himself one day. "Thanks, I'll be sure to check it out. Do you know where it's going to happen?"

It was also a well-known fact that the champion's team consisted of a good amount of powerful steel-typed Pokemon, and Gabriel would no doubt want to take a look for himself. As a self-proclaimed specialist of the type, Gabriel considered Steven a rival - someone he had to beat, not just because he was the champion. He'd meet him on the grandest stage of them all one day; that was a promise Gabriel made to himself.

"Nearby?" Selena paused for a moment, than laughed. "It isn't anywhere physically nearby, unless you think Ever Grande City 'nearby.' The Pokemon League officials aren't going to let such an event go unseen, though. Steven and Glacia will be having a one-on-one battle streamed online. You can watch it from the Pokemon Center."

She took a glance down at her Mawile, who was now swinging back and forth with Chikorita. The two couldn't look any happier, she thought, but Vulpix stayed at her feet. She knelt down, picked the fire fox up and set it forward. Mawile and Chikorita both stopped their playing for a second as the shy Vulpix stood still. "Go on," Selena said. "You've played with them before. There's no need to be afraid." Chikorita and Mawile walked beside it, mushed their sides together and force walked the Vulpix forward, much to its dismay. It wouldn't be long until she truly felt like part of the group.

"I'll stay out here with the little ones," Selena said. "I can give up seeing Steven in action in exchange for time with my little friends."

"Oh, well now i just feel stupid," Gabriel admitted, scratching the back of his head. "I guess I'll leave you alone with your Pokemon, then." Gabriel began walking back towards the Pokemon Center, stopping for a moment to look back at Selena's Pokemon playing. "Heh... tiny feet," he muttered, taking note of Selena's Mawile. Gabriel plopped down onto one of the Center's sofas, flipping through the channels to find the match that Selena had talked about. Duke tugged at Gabe's jacket, wanting some food from Gabriel's seemingly bottomless snack pockets. Obliging, Gabriel unwrapped a granola bar for him.

Several commercials were playing on the channel, advertising trainer products and cosmetic supplies for Contest-goers. Duke pointed at the screen when he saw a black hat and tuxedo that caught his interest. "I don't know, Duke," Gabriel doubted. "Who has ever seen a penguin in a penguin suit and top hat? I think you'd just look silly." The Piplup crossed his flippers and puffed up his cheeks in protest at the remark. "Remember that we're in this for the League, buddy. Speaking of which, the show's back on."

The television in the Pokemon Center buzzed to life as the programmed show came back up to the screen. Bright lights and colorful, animated words bounced onto the screen: "HOENN'S BEST AND BRIGHTEST!" it read. The animation parted away like sliding doors to reveal a young man's face, clean-shaven, bright blue eyes and a dazzling smile spread across his lips. "Hello Hoenn!" his voice boomed with enthusiasm, "welcome back once again to the only Pokemon battling show in the whole region! We have a wonderful surprise for our viewers today, but many of you have already heard the news. So lets get right down to it then! Trainers, brush off the dirt and set down to watch the masters!"

The long-winded announcer was cut off from the video as the camera panned over to an indoor battlefield. The black lines were clearly visible through the ice field. Several icebergs stuck up out of the ground on the edges of the battlefield and in the center was the typical Pokeball symbol. "As you can see," the announcer's voice came through again. "The battlefield has been chosen by the challenger, the third member of our Elite Four, Glacia! An ice-type field to match the bitter cold of her Ice-type Pokemon! And the man she had challenged, none other than our Champion, Steven Stone! Now, before our two trainers take to the field, we must discuss the rules!"

The video switched to a cyan backdrop and black letters spread across it as he spoke. "This will be a one-on-one battle with no switch ins. The moment one Pokemon is declared unable to battle, the match will end and our winner declared. Also status effects, such as frozen solid and sleep, will not count as a knock-out! Those are the rules, stay tuned and the match will begin shortly!" The television switched back to commercials after that.

Melanie sniffled. Her nose ran a little, but her tears had stopped flowing. Wattson's words settled in her head tenderly – the reality of his message proved rather harsh, yet she could not disagree. I barely trained, she lamented, nodding in response to the gym leader, I should have prepared more. Perhaps if she took the older trainer's suggestions, watched the battle, and then began to develop her own strategies then things might be different the next time around. She certainly would feel better.

"I will watch that battle, Mr. Wattson," she promised with another sniffle. Her brother flashed her a smile of approval. She continued, "I'll learn from it and train hard so that, next time we see each other, I'll be ready." She could feel herself regaining composure – although the loss had put a damper on her confidence, she knew that this would be a keystone in her path to success. She grabbed her brother's hand. "We'll both be able to learn from it."

"Sounds like a plan!"

– – – – –

Percy stopped short yet again. Narcissus stopped on a dime. The Dark-type tilted his head toward his trainer. He kept walking. "I own an Espeon," he alerted her, "but do not have him with me at the moment. He's back at my lab. So... no worries, I suppose." His mouth felt bitter. She didn't like Psychic-type Pokémon, but could she truly be afraid of them? Particularly a trainer-owned and respectful one? Espeon weren't known for getting aggressive normally – perhaps he could show her that they weren't so bad after all. But then again, that would first mean getting out of the Trick House and then inviting her back to the lab. Percy bit his lip. Maybe that was thinking too far ahead.